Chapter 2 🌺 Current Days 🌺

Viviane

I entered the mansion where my parents had worked for over thirty-five years. Everything was silent, which was quite normal for a Saturday, considering that it was already night and that the employees had already retired to the wing designated for them inside the house.

Like every Sunday, Mr. Rodolfo, who was my parents' boss, gave most of them time off, some must have even gone to their respective homes.

João Pedro had sent me a message earlier, calling me to go to his room. It was normal, but I avoided meeting my best friend's mother and so consequently I avoided entering the mansion.

Mrs. Marta didn't like me and despite never having mistreated me, I knew she didn't agree with my friendship with her youngest son, because she didn't disguise her displeasure at seeing me always by João Pedro's side.

When I was a child, who didn't understand people's actions and their motivations, I kept insisting on staying with Felipe, I considered him my friend. And so, it went until one day I overheard a conversation between him and his school friends, arranging a little pool party at Ricardo Alcântara's house, who was an inseparable friend of his.

Ricardo asked him not to take me to that party. The words I heard that day left a deep impression on me and made me understand my place in the lives of those I considered equal to me, until that moment.

"It's going to be the best pool party you've ever been to! Everyone will be there," said Henrique Alcântara, who was Ricardo's cousin and a friend of João Felipe.

"But you can't take the employee's daughter, do you hear João Felipe? And if João Pedro insists, I withdraw the invitation I made to him. That girl doesn't belong to the same social milieu as us. We shouldn't mix with her" Ricardo said.

"You don't even have to worry, Ricardo! It never crossed my mind to take that girl to this party! I'm going with Alicia, and she hates Vivi" replied João Felipe with disgust.

Hearing the way, they talked about me left me floored! I couldn't even hear the rest of the conversation, as I sneaked out in the other direction they were, so they wouldn't see me, and my humiliation would be even greater.

I was so sad that I didn't want to go to class for a few days. The disappointment was such that I even had a fever and was in bed. I was then sixteen and João Felipe was nineteen. He was three years older than his brother, João Pedro.

After that, I did everything to distance myself from the children of my parents' bosses and tried to make new friends, with students who were closer to my economic reality, such as those students who were on scholarships.

Despite my attempts to distance myself, João Pedro never accepted the distance I tried to put between us, and even with all his mother's nagging and his other friends insisting that he shouldn't take me everywhere, because I wasn't part of their social circle, we were best friends until today.

We even opted for the same college, just different courses, as he was studying business while I had chosen social work, and we continued to consider each other as brothers.

I get to João Pedro's room, and I'm already turning the doorknob, without even knocking. We had that level of intimacy.

He was lying on his bed, watching TV. His room was huge, with a King Size bed right in the center, and it was all decorated in shades of gray and navy blue. Everything was very masculine, and I liked João Pedro's style, which despite all the luxury and richness, was not futile nor did it get carried away by appearances.

"At last, you're here," he said, glaring at me and getting up from the bed.

"Don't give me complaints! You know I hate coming into the mansion here. I still come out of friendship with you, your ungrateful bastard," I said exasperated but smiling internally. "What happened? Why all this drama?"

"Only, I'm bored indoors and want to go out and have fun. Saturday night is not the day to stay at home watching TV, much less a guy like me, hot and fun" he said with a big smile on his face. "And I already told you that you can come here whenever you want! You are completely free to do so. My father always guaranteed you access to everything we have, you who live full of pride."

"But you're adamant, João Pedro! You made me come all this way just to say that? Why didn't you say it via message? We could have arranged everything without me coming here!" I complained, but I was smiling.

I like going out with João Pedro, we have a lot of fun.

"And about coming here, your Rodolfo is a special person and I like him, but your mother can't stand me, and I don't like it when she gives me a dirty look."

"I asked you to come here because I want you to help me choose a look that enhances all my beauty. And about Mrs. Marta, you know that my father knows how to deal with her very well."

I looked at him and I just believed that the matter he considered urgent was the choice of his clothes, because it was about my friend.

The years passed, but it seems that everything remained the same. There was no point in telling him that I wasn't good at the subject because João Pedro said that I was a woman and knew what women liked.

"So, let's go. Because it's already past twenty o'clock and I don't like to go out late..."

We chose João Pedro's clothes, and we were still finishing watching the series he was watching when I arrived. We were fans and were always watching reruns of episodes from that show.

When I realized that more than an hour had passed, I hurriedly left his room and went back to my house, ready to get ready.

We arrived at the club already after twenty-three hours. It was amazing how João Pedro took so long to get ready, much longer than I did.

But thinking about it, I didn't have as many clothing options as João Pedro, to take so much time selecting. He sometimes even complained and insisted on wanting to buy me clothes, but I wouldn't accept them. Everything his father did for me was enough.

Now Mr. Rodolfo doesn't have to pay for my studies anymore. I managed to get into a public university. But there are always costs, and the way he found to continue helping me was to give me a savings account on my eighteenth birthday.

The fact is that I didn't feel good about refusing, because that help would be very welcome for the following years, during college.

We had arranged to meet some friends inside the club, and it was with some difficulty that we managed to locate them, as it was very crowded, but nothing out of the ordinary for a Saturday night.

We had arranged to go out with our usual group of friends, which were Cecília, César, and Júlia.

"You took your time!" he immediately complained to Cecília.

She was studying business with João Pedro, an extremely beautiful woman, with her body well shaped by constant physical exercises, as she was "addicted to the gym", in her own words. They had known each other since their first semester in college, and we became good friends.

Cecilia works as a photographic model and besides being beautiful, with her long curly, natural blonde hair and beautiful clear eyes, in a shade of blue that stands out on her face, my friend is also very intelligent.

"Oh, friend. The complaint here is with JP. He's the biggest culprit for our delay" I spoke loudly, trying to make myself heard above the noise of the sound and the surrounding conversations.

"Normal! JP is always full of frills," complained César.

César has been our friend for many years, as he had studied with us throughout school, in the same room as us, and we only separated when we opted for different universities. He was finishing his law course at another institution, and he was a very handsome brunette, a little shorter than João Pedro, who was over 1.85 tall.

"I agree with you, César! I don't know why it took so long to choose an outfit," I said, looking up. "I always wear the first outfit that appears in front of me."

"Guys, today you are more boring than usual. Let's drink because the night is young," João Pedro said while looking attentively at the other side of the club.

"That's right, JP. Let's stop stalling and let's drink," Julia shouted, looking quite excited already.

Júlia was a recent friendship, as we met her through Cecília a year ago, and since then she has always been with us. They were childhood friends when they still lived in a city in the interior of the state and had started to share an apartment in the city since Júlia came to study in São Paulo.

Short, very pretty, and extroverted, Júlia always manages to make friends very easily. She has long black hair and very expressive light brown eyes. A girl's love is always good in life.

"I agree with you, Julia. Let's drink and forget about these boring people" João Pedro said after he stopped looking at whatever it was on the other side of the club, near the bar. And that's what happened.

The atmosphere remained relaxed while we had fun with friends, as we were all used to each other's personalities.